Scream
by somehowunbroken
Summary: 'She's screaming and it's all he can hear.' Rating for torture, burning.


She's screaming and it's all he can hear.

"Teyla!" Her name is ripped form his lips as he runs, trying to find the sound, and she keeps screaming. The sound is torturous.

"Teyla!" he tries again. He's checking in every room; he can't tell where her voice is coming from. He taps his radio. "Anything?"

An assortment of voices all report back that they haven't found her. He curses and tries to discern where the sound is coming from, but it seems to be bleeding from the very walls. "Teyla!"

"John!" he hears during a break in the screams, and his heart leaps into his throat. He must be close. He tears around another corner and stops cold.

She's strapped down to the table, naked, and there's a fire built up below it. He can see her writhing around and thinks, _the table is metal._

He's to her before he can process the scene fully, before he thinks to check for anyone in there, and he's yelling into his radio for assistance as he works at the straps. Thankfully, Lorne is nearby and arrives in a matter of seconds. He, at least, thinks to sweep the room before helping with the straps.

There are burns all over her body but especially on her back and legs, where she was pressed to the heated table. Ugly blisters mar brown flesh and she cries out when John accidentally brushes against her. He's more careful, then, frowning as he shrugs out of his jacket. Teyla shakes her head weakly when he tries to drape it over her shoulders.

"Can you walk?" he asks. He's not sure he can carry her without causing more pain, but they need to get out of here. He has to make the decision, though, because she looks up at him for only a second before her eyes roll back and she falls.

Lorne scouts ahead as he pulls her as carefully as he can over his shoulder. There's nothing he can use to hide her nakedness that won't stick to the burned flesh, so he puts her modesty out of his mind as they exit the facility. The rest of the teams fall in, scouting ahead to the Gate, dialing for him, and Carson is on the other side when he gets through. He takes one look at Teyla's battered body and exhales.

"Can you carry her down? I'd rather not rearrange her too often."

John just nods and follows the doctor. There's a table in the infirmary with a hole cut in it, and he settles her there on her stomach, her face in the hole so she can breathe freely. He hesitates before he leaves.

"Can I bring – clothing? Something?"

The doctor shakes his head distractedly. "Go," he says, and John leaves.

Carson keeps her sedated but Teyla still screams as he works. John watches from above in the operating theater, a clear glass partition between them, and his fists clench at the sight. Carson explained the process to him but he still doesn't understand why he has to scrape away the dead flesh, why he has to cause her even more pain. He leaves the observation room after an hour. There's only so much of her screaming that he can take. He wonders how Carson does it; he's too far away, too concentrated on Teyla to see the tears streaming down the doctor's face.

John goes to his office, far from the infirmary, but he can still hear her screams echoing down the hallway. He leaves and goes to his quarters, where the screams continue to resound in his head. He finally gives up and returns to the infirmary.

He hears only silence and, for a moment, panics, because she's screaming in his head, and if she's not screaming in real life, what does that mean?

But she's sleeping, or at least heavily sedated. There's a nurse in the room with her, talking quietly from a chair, and she stands when he enters the room. "Colonel," she greets him. He notes that her eyes are red and puffy. "The doctor wants someone with her at all times."

John nods. "I'll get you when I go," he says, and he takes her place. He talks to her, telling her things about Earth, about his brother and stupid things they'd done as kids, anything to drown out the screaming he can't shake from his head. He sits there for hours until Ronon shows up. He tells the other man to get the nurse when he leaves, and heads back to his quarters.

When he finally falls asleep, the screams fill the hallways of the hive again, and he's running down the hallways, looking for her.


End file.
